The popularity of photography is continuously increasing. This applies especially to digital photography as the supply of inexpensive digital cameras has improved. Also the integrated cameras in mobile phones have contributed to the increase in the popularity of photography.
For a large group of users, the size of a camera is an important criteria when selecting a camera. A small size camera is easier to carry than a large heavy camera. Also the quality of images is naturally important for every photographer. However, in traditional lens arrangements the physical size of the area (in digital cameras the sensor area) where the lenses produce the image determines the focal length and thus the height of the optics, assuming that the field of view is fixed. Thus, reducing height of the optics and the thickness of the camera also reduces the sensor area, and thus the image quality. One solution is to reduce the pixel size of the sensor area. Thus the resolution and quality is increased. Another solution to reduce the optics height is to divide the sensor area into subsensors which have lens arrangements of their own. For example, if the sensor area is divided into four subareas of equal size, then each subsensor size is reduced by two. Correspondingly, the focal length and thus the optical height are also reduced by two. One known solution is presented in U.S. 2002/0089596.
Users usually want versatile cameras with several different features. Including many features in small scale cameras has so far been difficult, if not impossible.